My fifth season covering Nebraska athletics will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday and while there’s always a certain level of excitement that comes with the beginning of a brand new season, this year feels a little bit different. Optimism throughout my beats seems to be at an all-time high.

With this week's news that Nebraska will be without two key players and that the Huskers won't be streaming their games during their upcoming trip to Italy, it looks like the cloud of mystery hanging over this team will stick around right up until the season opener.

Jacob Padilla joins the pod this week to offer some thoughts on the first open practice of the Fred Hoiberg era at Nebraska. The Huskers as a team are very new, but there were still a few things to take away from the open portion of practice. We also talk a little football.

The 10 pre-Italy trip practices afforded to Nebraska are valuable for the coaches as they get a head start on installing their offense and defense, but there’s just as much value in the players simply spending time together on and off the court as the Huskers look to build up team chemistry.

Fred Hoiberg developed pro talent at Iowa State, and if he's able to duplicate that in Lincoln the first couple of weeks in July should become appointment television for Nebrasketball fans looking to support former Huskers.

Isaiah Roby is NBA-bound. He was selected with the 45th overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft on Thursday night by the Detroit Pistons, but the Dallas Mavericks acquired the pick via trade with the Pistons.

Fred Hoiberg and his staff have been busy this month putting their players through workouts and preparing to host their basketball camps, but it’s almost time to hit the road to start looking for the next generations of Huskers.

Dachon Burke is often something of the forgotten man in discussions about the new-look Huskers under Hoiberg, but based on what he did at Robert Morris the transfer guard could play as big of a role as anyone in 2019-20.